What a Weekend + AZ in the O.C. Tonight
The Ducks had themselves a doozy of a weekend. Wins over Columbus at home, and San Jose away (first road win this year) in back to back games brings the Ducks current win streak to four games. Anaheim has passed Calgary and Edmonton in the Pacific Division. They are two points behind the Sharks for a playoff spot and five points behind L.A. For top spot in the division.
I wanted to share some thoughts on the current win streak.
*In the two games since he scored his first goal of the season, Corey Perry looks like a different player than the one who occupied the #10 jersey before then.
*Frederick Andersen is making big saves at crucial times, which is a welcome sign. He is also putting himself and his team behind the eight ball by letting in some soft goals (Gudbranson on Wednesday and Hartnell on Friday). His next jump in development will be steady concentration.
*I like the post appendix Ryan Getzlaf.
*Its amazing the Ducks won four games straight with important players like Getzlaf, Manson, Thompson, Sekac, Rakell, Despres and Silfverberg missing games. Correction, Silfverberg did play in all the games, he was largely forgettable.
*Max Friberg may be playing limited minutes, but he makes the most out of the time he gets.
*Kudos to Anton Khudobin. Posting a shutout in the NHL is hard. Doing it in a tough environment on the road is impressive. Add in that it was his first game action in 16 days and you have a remarkable accomplishment.
Arizona @ Ducks The Ducks take the ice tonight in Anaheim with something to prove. Last time these two teams met, Anaheim was beat soundly 4-0. Winners of four straight, the Ducks are playing the polar opposite of the way they did the first time around. Of course there will be some line juggling for Anaheim, there always is. Frederick Andersen returns to the goal after getting part two of back-to-back games off. Here is tonight's lineup:
Forwards Maroon-Getzlaf-Perry Hagelin-Kesler-Silfverberg Cogliano-Horcoff-Friberg Wagner-Santorelli-Stewart
Defensemen Lindholm-Bieksa Fowler-Manson Stoner-Vatanen
Goalies Andersen Khudobin
ETC.
Both Jiri Sekac and Nate Thompson are skating again as they recover from injury. Simon Despres is still sidelined.